Education Week Reporter Sarah Schwartz, along with other contributors, explores the latest news, ideas, and resources for teacher leaders. Coverage runs the gamut from the inspirational to the infuriating, from practical classroom tips to raging policy debates.

So what's a language arts teacher to do? Matthews agrees with educator Paula Stacey that teachers should scrap all the prescriptive writing models and process-oriented approaches and, in essence, just let kids express themselves and give them feedback on their work. This, he says, is how people learn to write:

The professional writers I know got excited not in class but while compiling personal journals, or composing poems and songs, or sending long letters or e-mails to friends, or working for the school newspaper. I have been influenced by educators who think free reading is the best homework for elementary school. Why not add some free writing?

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